Striving For A Safer Table SawTable saws are the country's most dangerous commonly used power tool. Forty-thousand Americans end up in emergency rooms every year with injuries — 4,000 of them suffer amputations, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Safety advocates say a new technology could prevent most of those injuries.

Regulators Consider Safety Brakes For Table Saws

Thomas Siwek, director of product safety at Robert Bosch Tool Corp., demonstrates a newly designed guard for table saws at a meeting with the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Industry officials say the new guards make the saws safe. But consumer advocates disagree and are pushing for flesh-sensing technology such as SawStop, which they say will virtually eliminate the worst table saw injuries.
Chris Arnold/NPR
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Advocates Urge Lawmakers To Make Table Saws Safer

The SawStop saw can sense a slight electrical current that human fingers (and hot dogs) create. When it senses the current, the saw triggers a safety brake, which stops the blade in less than 5/1,000th of a second.
Courtesy of SawStop
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